Live and Let Dice
by Exterminatedaffodils123
Summary: The Doctor and Sarah visit the world's largest board game convention. Prompt for the Tumblr Secret Santa...thing.


Live and Let Dice

The thin blue box poked its way into the world, jabbing at the air around it with the slowly flashing light and heaving groan of the engines. As a few seconds passed, the object became more and more solid, until it was as certain a part of the surroundings as if it had been there for an eternity.

Sarah gazed at the steadfast column raising itself up then gently down again, watching the twinkling bulbs cased inside signal their arrival.

'Earth,' the Doctor boomed airily, taking a cautionary glance at the scanner. '25…' he shot a look at the year-o-meter '…62. Right on target!' He gave the console a 'thank you very much, dear' pat down, before pulling his scarf from the hat-stand (which possessed a rather alarming lack of hats at the moment) and wrapping it around himself.

'You mean…' Sarah started, double-checking the year to be sure of herself 'we've actually arrived?!'

The Doctor rather dourly noted a hint of disbelief and surprise at the achievement. 'Yes!' he replied, quite indignantly. 'We've arrived!'

Sarah let a great smile break out across her face, before dashing over towards the chair in the corner of the room and tugging her coat from it. As she pulled it on, she turned to the Doctor: 'Let's go!'

The dual white doors opened, and for once, the Doctor was following in Sarah's trail.

One of the somewhat haphazard items Sarah had collected from her home to take aboard the TARDIS, alongside a tennis racket, stuffed owl and a potted plant from a market in Scarborough, was a wooden chess board passed down from her aunt's family's corner shop. Thanks to numerous caravanning holidays spent mastering the noble art of Cluedo, Sarah had grown to love the sheer experience of a board game; the feel, the smell, the calming machinations of trying to work out how to work out the weapon and reach the room in a single toss of the dice. There had been quite a few nights (somehow…) in the TARDIS where the Doctor had left the ship on standby, and the two had whittled away the hours playing games of chess.

As Sarah had so eloquently put it one night, 'They'd been playing chess as if it were the end of the world!' The Doctor had laughed at the time, but it was a rather silly saying, when you come to think about it. If the world really _was_ ending, surely chess would be wasting time? Wouldn't it be better to run about, point your sonic screwdriver at things and offer people jelly babies, that sort of thing?

The TARDIS library was soon over-flowing with dozens of chess games, all in progress. There was the ornate set the Doctor borrowed from Napoleon; the green and red plastic set salvaged before the Fifth World War; the 4D variation that neither the Doctor nor Sarah really understood how to play. It was on the previous night that the Doctor had offhandedly mentioned a board game convention, recorded as the biggest in history (up to that point, of course).

Upon hearing this mention, he'd been badgered almost constantly by his companion, regarding the illustrious convention. He generally answered her requests with a soothing wink and getting on whatever was happening at the time. However, it really came to a head when, in the middle of deciphering a Dalek code, she'd asked for the umpteenth time – and believe him, he'd been counting.

After his insistent 'yes!' of a reply, he really had no choice, other than to plot a course for the Nova Board Game convention as soon as possible. After all, if he hadn't agreed, then the Daleks would've wiped Luton from the map! (not that anyone would've minded, of course…)

'What do you think?' the Doctor asked, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets and taking in the landscape. The TARDIS had landed itself in the exact centre of a huge white square, a thick grey fog drowning everywhere else.

'Are you _sure_ this is the right place?' Sarah asked, squinting her eyes to look at the horizon. Yet more fog.

'Am I sure?' the Doctor retorted incredulously ' _Am I sure_?!'

'Well, it doesn't _seem_ like a convention, that's all…' Sarah replied meekly, all of a sudden very interested in a speck of dirt on the floor.

'Well…' the Doctor murmured mostly to himself. He had to admit, she _did_ have a point.

Suddenly, a huge shadow appeared in the sky, drowning out any semblance of light.

'What's that?!' Sarah cried, heading back to the TARDIS.

'Seems to be a shadow of some sort…' the Doctor replied, peering at it to take a closer look.

The shape stopped in midway, hovering above them. Sarah held her breath, scared that even the slightest movement could send the whole lot crashing down on the two of them, crushing them like bugs. Thankfully, it held its position in the sky, not even giving the remotest hint of falling.

And then it fell.

'Run, Sarah!' the Doctor shouted, giving her a starting push. The two ran to the side of the square, scarf and skirt flapping in the wind, as the shape slammed into the ground with a resounding _thud_ , causing the ground to tremble.

The Doctor and Sarah collapsed to the floor, knocked down by the effort. He gingerly hauled himself up, glancing at their would be killer. Illuminated by the overhead floodlight, the Doctor followed the shadows as they ran up from the circular base, through the slanted lines with breathed in then exhaled at the top, and then the top, with bits of wood jutting out from the surface. He finally realised what it was.

'Oh, I _see_!' Sarah laughed, looking through the observation. 'The world's biggest board game convention!'

The pair of them were sat in the office of the manager of the convention, with a huge window overseeing the battlefield taking up one of the walls. The manager himself, a thin, egotistical man named Susan, had his arms crossed, whilst he glared at the two trespassers.

'Well, anyone could've made that mistake…' the Doctor purred, dabbing at the traces of sweat on his brow with the end of his scarf. 'All a matter of vernacular, wouldn't you say?' he asked Susan, letting his toothiest teeth come forward and smile at the man.

The giant rook outside the window shuffled across the giant board, taking a giant pawn and scoring a giant victory. The TARDIS had remained intact, thankfully, but the game had to continue with a TARDIS-shaped dent in the bottom.

Susan tapped his fingertips on the plastic desk, before reaching into a drawer and rummaging inside. Sarah sat back in her seat, retreating as much as she could from the man. The Doctor tried to catch a glimpse of whatever was inside the drawer, to no avail.

The man stood back up again. In his hand was a device, made mostly of two parts joined together at a right angle (was there such a thing as a left angle? Must look that up…). A fat hole resided in the edge facing the Doctor and Sarah, and a thin strip of metal protruded in the corner. A gun.

The Doctor was up like a shot (poor choice of words), raising his hands into the air. Susan huffed in exasperation, before striding towards the tall Gallifreyan and grabbing his hand. He tugged it down and raised the barrel of the gun towards the flesh. The Doctor started to pre-emptively wince as he pulled the trigger…

And then pulled his hand away, deeply surprised at the lack of agony. On the back of his hand was a stencilled gathering of ink: 'NOVA BOARD GAME CONVENTION. VISITORS PASS'.

There were really a lot of people in the convention. Aside from the various giant board games, there were countless shops – by the time you'd walked past one, two more had been built at the other end. Each shop was home to dozens of people, hoping to catch an ever-so-slightly cheaper product. The Doctor and Sarah wandered through the mess of people, not with a particular heading in mind but simply enjoying the spectacle.

They hooked arms, each gaping and pointing at different sights and attractions around the conventional. 'Look at that!' Sarah giggled, pointing the Doctor towards a Ludo set made up of Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and Quarks. He chortled back as he showed her a Monopoly board of the 699 wonders of the universe (it was a _very_ big board). Together, they played a game of Old High Gallifreyan Scrabble, before trying their luck at Clouseau Cleudo.

By the time the artificial sun was setting, they'd tossed every die, played every card and moved every piece in the house. The last few gaggles of people were starting to make their way towards the telepods, and the Doctor and Sarah decided to follow them out. The allure of the friendly blue box sucked them back to the TARDIS, standing in a non-descript alcove just by the main exit.

As the Doctor produced his key and inserted in into the lock…his hand passed straight through. He recoiled instantly, then swatted at the box a couple of times. His hand phased through it as if it were made of smoke each time.

'What's wrong?' Sarah asked, cocking her head to get a better look. 'Why can't you go into the TARDIS?'

'I'm not sure…' the Doctor mumbled in response. 'But I don't like it…'

As the two doors flew open, Sarah stormed into the gleaming white room, throwing her ashen coat back onto the chair. She started to brush some of the dust from her shoulder as the Doctor entered the room, as irritatingly immaculate as always.

'Well, how was I supposed to know?!' he asked Sarah, throwing his hands up to further his point.

'You read about it! Surely, it must've been written _somewhere_ that the Nova Board Game Convention of 2562, biggest in history…was a hoax!'

'It wasn't a hoax!'

'Alright, a training ground for Ogrons!' Sarah slipped off her shoes and started to massage her blistered feet. 'We were still shot at!'

'We got away!'

' _After_ you realised that the TARDIS was a hologram, and we had to throw pieces from the Trivial Pursuit collection as we were running?'

'…Yes!'

Sarah, against her better wishes, let a small laugh escape her mouth. 'The look on that Ogron's face!' she snickered 'when you pelted it with a Monopoly hotel!' The Doctor joined in the laughter. 'Oh, I hate you…' she said fondly. 'There are blind monkeys who make better drivers than you!'

The Doctor answered with a look of recognition and shock. 'Believe me, they don't!' he stated, eyes as wide as possible. Sarah gave him a snort of a laugh in response.

'Alright, then,' she started 'Where to now?'

'I was rather thinking you'd like a rest,' he replied, shutting the doors with the lever. 'After that dashing about.'

'Yes…' she considered the option, strutting lightly around the console as she did 'Or, we could go somewhere nice, for a change.'

'Somewhere nice?'

'Yes! Where it isn't a quarry, or a space station run by loonies or an alien battle fleet! Somewhere we can…relax!'

'Relax? Yes…I think I know the place…'

The Doctor repeated the word 'relax' a few times under his breath whilst he worked at the controls, apparently desperate to keep himself focused on the task. Sarah watched in amazement as his hands almost merged into a rapid blur of movement, pulling this and that, pressing a storm of buttons with the precision of a virtuoso pianist. Suddenly, a bell within the console dinged. They'd arrived.

Gingerly, Sarah stepped over towards the door, as the Doctor grabbed the lever. Slowly, he pulled on it, and the doors churned open.

Sarah glanced through the black abyss to the infinite potential on the other side.

'Oh, Doctor!'

'What?!'

'It's the chess board! We're back where we started!'


End file.
